Currently, individuals using printable media (e.g., die cut labels), such as address labels, business cards and other formatted types of printable media, may employ pre-formatted software templates in existing software programs. Printable media can have various configurations, including single sheets of labels that can be printed upon by desktop computer printers. Media in roll form is also available for printing in suitable printers. The software template is typically a text file with embedded codes defining a number of fields that define print information and print location of the print information to be printed on the printable media. The software template allows proper positioning, and optionally formatting, of the print information on the printable media, and facilitates the addition of print information into the various printable fields of the printable media. Typically, a number of software templates can reside in a word processing program, a database program or a specific customized printable media program. Many of these software templates can be retrieved within an associated program from an index or menu having a manufacturer's product code.
If a given software template is not available in the associated program, a user can search the manufacture's website and download the software template for use, or manually create a template via a user interface of the associated program or a template generation program from a set of instructions or media measurements. In addition, some templates are available on the Internet and have the functionality to allow a user to input information into a template and print the information on the selected media without using a word processing program. However, users may have difficulty locating the correct templates, or may sometimes select the incorrect template for the associated media. Even if the correct template is located and selected, the user may have to follow several steps to find and select the correct template, in addition to selecting data to merge with the template or input data into the template for printing. The present invention addresses these shortcomings.